The Goodfoot will have an art opening Last Thurs July 26 from 5-12. The show will be up until August 27th. This Months artists are Brin Levinson, Heidi Elise Wirz, Jason Graham, Kendra Binney.

Brin Levinson
My current works are acrylic and oil paintings on canvas. What I love about painting is the ability to build a visual image completely from scratch.*I combine fragments of realism and imagination in my compositions to create a world balanced on the edge of familiar and foreign. I am largely inspired by industrial areas and old architecture.* I find the juxtaposition of urban landscapes and nature much more interesting than either one element on it's own. I want to create a dreamlike scene of one suspended moment and leave an open-endedness to the stories in my paintings. There is a luring mystery in a moment recorded by only one picture.**
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Heidi Elise Wirz is an illustrator, printmaker, and painter, based in Portland, OR. *A native of the Central Coast of California, Heidi was raised barefoot and wild. *She was amazed with the world around her, and began drawing it as soon as she could hold a crayon. Tall mountains and trees, morning fog, Swiss folklore, *large birds of prey, horses, sprawling vineyards, and brazen characters made an indelible mark of Heidi, and are the main focus of her artwork. The family farm sits on the San Andreas Faultline, ninety miles south of San Francisco where in her late teens and early twenties, Heidi found a great love in graffiti and street art. *She attended the Academy of Art with a double focus in both painting/drawing and printmaking. *Her work is a blend of fine art, illustration, trauma, and redemption. *

It is Heidiís belief that in order to truly communicate, a person must be willing to make themselves vulnerable. *While she is not always comfortable communicating vocally, Heidi has found a way to express her most intimate feelings through her characters, and their animal companions. *Often the subjects of her pieces have holes that emit a twisted, looping string headed for the edges of the page, signifying hurt, physical ailment, hope or apology. *

Heidi moved to Portland in 2006. *She has had shows across the US, and in Germany, UK, and Japan. *Until recently she was the gallery manager at Peopleís Art Of Portland, and bartends at The Goodfoot. **In 2012 Heidi opened Letís Go! Screen Printing with good friend Geoff Brandenburg, in downtown Portland. *They hope to take over the planet one screen print at a time. *When she is not working or talking to trees, she is super into nerding out with her son Cody, and making hella snacks with her olí man Krist.

Jason Graham lives here in Portland. When he's not playing video games he finds time to draw and paint some sad little animals. He has become a quite a hermit, but he is going to leave the house for the new X-Files movie.

Kendra Binney was raised in a small mountain town with no shoe stores. Most of her time was spent barefoot treading through the miniscule world of spiders, snakes and all things hiding in the grass. She transfers this closeness with the small and obscure into her paintings. Through scenes of dripping landscapes and insecure, vulnerable characters, she illustrates a world draped in memories, remorse, and fragile realities. Seen through pastel washes and shiny candy coatings of resins, her works evoke both nostalgia and contempt. They are at once gentle and cruel, sweet and unsettling.
ďIím often struck by the importance of small insignificant things , the perpetuity of their impermanence, and my inability to hold onto any of it. The world can be completely absurd, despairing, and fiercely cruel. I find it completely endearing regardless. ď
Though her paintings have traveled around the world, Kendra herself spends her days all alone in a small studio in Portland, Oregon. There she paints, daydreams, and paints some more.